Description

First off, I should point out that "meatgrinder" is being used in professional literature about the battle. An example is the 18th April 2023 article "How Long Should Ukrainian Forces Defend Bakhmut? Lessons from Stalingrad," by Gælan Hanlon on West Point's Modern War Institute website.

This seemingly conventional hex-and-counter combat-odds-resolution game is both operational and (intra-city) more tactical with different scaled maps for each. Unit level is battalion to brigade. No airpower which has been neutralized in the war but artillery including HIMARS and Russian long-distance glide bombs are present, and there is fortification - albeit flank-able - to mitigate those.

But the added dimension of the game is the expertise levels of the units, their promotion and/or reinforcement/replacement, and the (tragic) human - ergo political - loss factor which can disrupt or even conceivably halt the fighting and the game - a deliverance reversal of the "sudden death" game mechanic, if you will.

There are promote-able conscript and then/also regular army units for both sides. On the Ukraine side there are the hardcore political Azovs and also, starting in 2023, NATO-trained units of initially unpredictable strength. On the Russian side, there are promote-able "cost-free" convict/prisoner units and the mercenary Wagners.

Units are hidden until attacking or attacked.

The game could have as many as 6 players: on each side a northern operational player outside the city, the city battle commander, and the southern "outside" operational player, but there will have to be some authority established as to who gets reinforcements/replacements and artillery ammunition use or stockpiling.

The game has relatively simple combat mechanics (albeit having a wave-attack opportunity) and lasts 16 half month turns from the start of October 2022 until the battle's "historical" end ... right now (May 2023).

"Whether the Ukrainians choose to keep it going after having lost the city is ... right now ... problematic. Hopefully, it will have convinced everyone of the intolerable human cost and futility of continuing the war."

Well, the Ukrainians *have* chosen to resume the battle as part of their offensive and have pushed the Russians back significantly on the northern and southern flanks, so I have added a Continuation Battle of 10 more turns on the Turn Record Track with a suggested order of battle/setup.

—description from the designer